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The Players: Roland S. Martin, journalist and frequent contributor to CNN and admitted soccer hater; The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), critics of homophobia and, now, Martin
The Opening Serve: When Martin tuned into the Super Bowl Sunday night, he, like the rest of America, tweeted about it as well. From plugging his upcoming segments to Patriot smack talk, Martin was very active last night (and this morning. But it was one tweet, which caught the attention of GLAAD and the Twitterverse. Martin tweeted: "If a dude at your Super Bowl party is hyped about David Beckham's H&M underwear ad, smack the ish out of him! #superbowl"
And here's GLAAD's tweet in response:
.@rolandsmartin Advocates of gay bashing have no place at @CNN #SuperBowl #LGBT
— GLAAD (@glaad) February 6, 2012
The Return Volley: Since the exchange, GLAAD has started a petition asking CNN to fire Martin for his tweets. Martin fired back at GLAAD, stating "well you're clearly out of touch and clueless with what I tweeted. Way to assume, but you're way off base." Martin has expanded on his tweets, essentially saying he hates soccer not homosexuals. "I made several cracks about soccer as I do all the time. I was not referring to sexuality directly or indirectly regarding the David Beckham," he tweeted this morning. "And I'm sorry folks took it otherwise. It was meant to be a deliberately over the top and sarcastic crack about soccer; I do not advocate violence of any kind against anyone gay, or not."